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Direct Marketing Campaign for PetMeds

June 4, 2012

Background: PetMeds wanted to conduct a direct marketing campaign which would combine the use of their website and direct mail, as well as the mass production of their catalog. They drove pet lovers to their website by hosting a “Cutest Pet” competition, where interested participants submitted their name, e-mail address, their pet’s name and breed, as well as a photo of their pet.

The Challenge: PetMeds wanted to use the information gathered from their competition to mail their catalog to more than 2 million pet lovers across the country. They believed that by customizing their catalog to seem like it was especially designed for the participant’s pet, it would get a better response rate than typical mass marketing campaigns. This was not your ordinary catalog. It had features of both a mass-produced catalog – 28 common pages of text – and a personalized catalog – digital and variable data on the front and back covers.

Not Just Your Ordinary Catalog:

Variable Aspects:

Front outside cover featured the pet’s name and breed, pictures of most poplar items (if new customer) or items most commonly ordered by customer (if existing customer)

Back inside cover read, “How is Pet’s Name Doing?” We want to keep Pet’s Name Healthy!” and listed common problems and common medications associated with that breed, indicating the page number that these medicines could be found on.

Back outside cover read, “The Single Best thing you can do for Pet’s Name…” and recommend a pet food.

The back outside cover also had the name and address of the pet owner, with mailing indicia.

Non-Variable Apects:

The catalog featured 28 pages of text which would be common to all 2 million pieces. It needed to be saddle stitched, mailed all over the United States to the hottest climates first, and then the cooler climates, so that consumers could order their flea and tick medication in time for summer

The Solution: This was the scenario that AGS Maryland, a CGX company, was faced with. They partnered with fellow sister-companies McKay Press, Veritas, and Courier Printing to get the job done. To complete this task, AGS, McKay, and Veritas digitally printed the covers with software designed by Xerox to combine the variable data and print on an IGEN. They then shipped the covers to Courier Printing, where we sorted the mailing files into 2 mailings, based on the climate issue. Courier printed the text on the full-web press, saddle-stitched the covers to the text, and handled all the mailing, making sure the catalogs got out on time for flea and tick season!

The Result: PetMeds was thrilled with their catalog. More than 2 million pet lovers, many of whom were new to PetMeds, received a catalog especially designed for their beloved pet. PetMeds received a great response rate and is planning on doing other customized catalog mailings in the future.